Legislation

Elizabeth Steiner Hayward is a democrat who is running for reelection in the Oregon Senate for District 17. She talked with Don Merrill about why she's a good fit for her fiscally conservative but socially liberal district, how she is a strong supporter of women's rights issues and what the legislature needs to do to get more involved regarding the inequitable treatement of latinos and blacks in the state.
28:35 minutes (26.17 MB)

Jessica Vega Pederson is a Democrat seeking reelection in Oregon's 47th House District. She talked with Don Merrill about why future ambitious projects authorized by the legislature need to have more oversight by the legislature, why she has concerns over the out of state money that supports Measure 90 and why, despite accusations of acrimony, she feels the legislature has been a great place to work on the people's business.
28:07 minutes (25.75 MB)

Joe Clement talks with James Tracy, author of "Dispatches Against Displacement: field notes from San Francisco's housing war". They consider what gentrification is as an economic and by extension racialized form of domination, how different cities experience gentrification differently, and real world strategies for fighting back and protecting housing from market forces. James will be speaking at Reading Frenzy books off of N Beech and Mississippi at 6pm on Sunday the 19th, where there'll be a community discussion about fighting displacement.
8:44 minutes (7.99 MB)

Frann Michel reads from an essay by Gavin Mueller in Jacobin, as well as from other sources, to argue that gentrification is not simply a cultural change in a neighborhood, but instead is driven by economic forces and backed by state power. But those forces can be collectively opposed, and alternatives proposed, as evidenced in the global--and local--Right to the City movement. You can also read Frann's commentary.
8:54 minutes (8.15 MB)